43 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Design insights and tradeoffs in InfluxDB
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menu:
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influxdb_1_4:
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weight: 60
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parent: Concepts
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---
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InfluxDB is a time-series database.
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Optimizing for this use-case entails some tradeoffs, primarily to increase performance at the cost of functionality.
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Below is a list of some of those design insights that lead to tradeoffs:
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1. For the time series use case, we assume that if the same data is sent multiple times, it is the exact same data that a client just sent several times.
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* *Pro:* Simplified [conflict resolution](/influxdb/v1.4/troubleshooting/frequently-asked-questions/#how-does-influxdb-handle-duplicate-points) increases write performance
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* *Con:* Cannot store duplicate data; may overwrite data in rare circumstances
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1. Deletes are a rare occurrence.
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When they do occur it is almost always against large ranges of old data that are cold for writes.
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* *Pro:* Restricting access to deletes allows for increased query and write performance
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* *Con:* Delete functionality is significantly restricted
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1. Updates to existing data are a rare occurrence and contentious updates never happen.
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Time series data is predominantly new data that is never updated.
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* *Pro:* Restricting access to updates allows for increased query and write performance
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* *Con:* Update functionality is significantly restricted
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1. The vast majority of writes are for data with very recent timestamps and the data is added in time ascending order.
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* *Pro:* Adding data in time ascending order is significantly more performant
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* *Con:* Writing points with random times or with time not in ascending order is significantly less performant
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1. Scale is critical.
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The database must be able to handle a *high* volume of reads and writes.
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* *Pro:* The database can handle a *high* volume of reads and writes
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* *Con:* The InfluxDB development team was forced to make tradeoffs to increase performance
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1. Being able to write and query the data is more important than having a strongly consistent view.
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* *Pro:* Writing and querying the database can be done by multiple clients and at high loads
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* *Con:* Query returns may not include the most recent points if database is under heavy load
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1. Many time [series](/influxdb/v1.4/concepts/glossary/#series) are ephemeral.
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There are often time series that appear only for a few hours and then go away, e.g.
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a new host that gets started and reports for a while and then gets shut down.
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* *Pro:* InfluxDB is good at managing discontinuous data
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* *Con:* Schema-less design means that some database functions are not supported e.g.
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there are no cross table joins
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1. No one point is too important.
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* *Pro:* InfluxDB has very powerful tools to deal with aggregate data and large data sets
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* *Con:* Points don't have IDs in the traditional sense, they are differentiated by timestamp and series
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